Essential Utilities, Inc. (NYSE:WTRG – Get Free Report) saw a significant drop in short interest in June. As of June 30th, there was short interest totalling 6,050,000 shares, a drop of 17.0% from the June 15th total of 7,290,000 shares. Based on an average daily trading volume, of 1,400,000 shares, the short-interest ratio is presently 4.3 days.
Insiders Place Their Bets
In other Essential Utilities news, CAO Robert A. Rubin sold 2,342 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total transaction of $87,661.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 53,391 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,998,425.13. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. In other Essential Utilities news, CAO Robert A. Rubin sold 2,342 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Monday, July 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $37.43, for a total transaction of $87,661.06. Following the completion of the transaction, the chief accounting officer now owns 53,391 shares of the company’s stock, valued at $1,998,425.13. The transaction was disclosed in a document filed with the Securities & Exchange Commission, which is accessible through this link. Also, CAO Robert A. Rubin sold 2,023 shares of the firm’s stock in a transaction on Wednesday, May 1st. The stock was sold at an average price of $36.56, for a total value of $73,960.88. Following the transaction, the chief accounting officer now directly owns 13,358 shares of the company’s stock, valued at approximately $488,368.48. The disclosure for this sale can be found here. 0.21% of the stock is currently owned by company insiders.
Institutional Inflows and Outflows
A number of hedge funds and other institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in the company. Graham Capital Management L.P. lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 87.2% during the third quarter. Graham Capital Management L.P. now owns 13,519 shares of the company’s stock worth $464,000 after purchasing an additional 6,299 shares in the last quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 94.0% during the third quarter. Teachers Retirement System of The State of Kentucky now owns 81,799 shares of the company’s stock worth $2,808,000 after purchasing an additional 39,643 shares in the last quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 0.4% during the third quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 27,168,585 shares of the company’s stock worth $932,698,000 after purchasing an additional 99,560 shares in the last quarter. Anchor Investment Management LLC acquired a new position in shares of Essential Utilities during the fourth quarter worth about $239,000. Finally, Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV lifted its stake in shares of Essential Utilities by 604.0% during the fourth quarter. Massmutual Trust Co. FSB ADV now owns 711 shares of the company’s stock worth $27,000 after purchasing an additional 610 shares in the last quarter. Institutional investors and hedge funds own 74.78% of the company’s stock.
Analyst Upgrades and Downgrades
Separately, Robert W. Baird lowered their price objective on Essential Utilities from $44.00 to $43.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a research report on Monday, May 6th. One analyst has rated the stock with a sell rating and five have assigned a buy rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the stock currently has a consensus rating of “Moderate Buy” and a consensus price target of $43.00.
Get Our Latest Research Report on Essential Utilities
Essential Utilities Price Performance
Shares of Essential Utilities stock opened at $40.43 on Friday. Essential Utilities has a twelve month low of $32.07 and a twelve month high of $43.26. The stock has a market capitalization of $11.06 billion, a P/E ratio of 19.16, a PEG ratio of 3.53 and a beta of 0.83. The company has a current ratio of 0.62, a quick ratio of 0.52 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 1.13. The business’s fifty day moving average price is $37.80 and its 200 day moving average price is $36.81.
Essential Utilities (NYSE:WTRG – Get Free Report) last issued its earnings results on Thursday, May 2nd. The company reported $0.73 earnings per share for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.76 by ($0.03). Essential Utilities had a net margin of 29.52% and a return on equity of 8.62%. The firm had revenue of $612.07 million during the quarter, compared to analyst estimates of $747.44 million. As a group, research analysts anticipate that Essential Utilities will post 1.97 earnings per share for the current year.
About Essential Utilities
Essential Utilities, Inc, through its subsidiaries, operates regulated utilities that provide water, wastewater, or natural gas services in the United States. The company operates through Regulated Water and Regulated Natural Gas segments. It offers water services through operating and maintenance contract with municipal authorities and other parties.
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